Silent Observers
by Sharyn
Summary: People are always watching, some observers are more shameless than others. A FE7 Matthew-centric fic, unexpected pairing. [implied SainxKent, and Matthewx?]


**Title:** Silent Observers  
**Author:** Sharyn (sxzhayahoo.com.au)  
**Series:** Fire Emblem - Rekka no Ken  
**Rating:** PG for slight shounen-ai  
**Warnings: **As stated above, there is shounen-ai in this fic, although you'd really have to read into it, the relationships can be interpreted in many ways.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fire Emblem or any of the characters, I'm just borrowing them. If I owned them, then I would be engaging in acts such as censored for content with censored for possible implications. 

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**Silent Observers**

Matthew was in a state of confusion. Actually, to be more precise, he was in a state of extreme frustration as well as confusion, Legault noted as he crept up towards Matthew's tent. The young Ostian spy interchanged the pressing of fingers to his temples with soft sighs and muttered curses under his breath. Legault didn't attempt to prevent the feral grin that had begun to form on his face as he caught a few of the words (_"…poor Leila…bastard…death by rabid dogs…"_) and his mind began working. He wandered over to the tent giving the excuse that he needed to be with someone who would make him feel young again.

"Nino's a good kid and all, but her constantly calling me 'Uncle Legault' has really started to make me feel older than I should," he said by way of explanation.

"And I care because? You're not exactly on top of my most favourite people list you know," Matthew said with a soft snort of contempt.

Legault laughed before reaching over to ruffle Matthew's hair playfully, ignoring the chilling glare being sent his way.

"You're so cute when you do that," Legault said with a toothy grin before dissolving into a perfect façade of seriousness in less than a second, "Jaffar's been keeping tabs on Nino's movement, and after you made that empty threat of yours, he didn't particularly want the kid around you."

Matthew couldn't help but narrow his eyes at Legault's comment, it obviously galled him that a private matter between him and Jaffar had reached the ears of the other resident thief. _Well_, Legault thought, _it wasn't like he really tried to hide the animosity between them. And I just _'happened'_ to be in the vicinity at the time._

Legault watched Matthew's gaze unfocus as he faced the campfire and plucked at the grass next to him absently. He allowed himself a soft smile as he saw a number of emotions flicker across the young spy's face. Legault had years of practice reading other people's emotions from small body movements and gestures and compared to people such as Jaffar whose emotions were virtually non-existent, Matthew was an open book. Legault had studied almost everyone at one time or other during the journey and Jaffar was one of his most favoured subjects, and he found that the famed emotionless assassin was not as cold as he projected himself to be.

Legault often caught small shifts in Jaffar's body, a short blink or a slow exhalation of a breath which, on someone more expressive like Serra, would have been the equivalent of an excited bounce, a squeal of excitement and trembling due to fear. And the common points he found that elicited most of these responses generally narrowed down to two people: Nino and Matthew.

"I don't know what's worse; the bastard caring about the girl or the girl's trust in him," Matthew murmured after a moment.

"If you're talking about trust, then you don't know him well enough," Legault replied. Legault noted Matthew's peculiar expression as he turned to meet his gaze.

"What do you mean?" he asked sharply.

"Jaffar has never betrayed anyone who has earned his trust," Legault said simply, "He's actually a very simple creature."

"Right," Matthew snickered, sarcasm obvious in his voice, "And Sain likes guys. Please do tell me more."

Legault allowed himself a mischievous grin at that, "You might be surprised with some of the secrets that people hoard around here. How do you know that Sain's interest in females isn't just a cover up?"

Matthew was speechless for a moment, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he tried to decide the correct words to say.

"Jaffar was a pet, you gave him an order and he obeyed," Legault said, continuing from before and utterly serious, "He didn't need things like emotion or a conscience, or even a mind really. All he needed was for opportunities to show his complete subservience, and Nergal had given him that."

"What went wrong?"

"More like what went right," Legault paused, "Little Pinocchio became human. And the fairy was a green haired mage."

Matthew bit his bottom lip, something Legault noted he did whenever he was thinking. His hand went to his temple again and rubbed it as he inhaled a deep, shaking breath.

"He never trusted Nergal. But you know the strange part? He trusts you. He trusts you in that you are more human than he, you may move like an assassin and sometimes even fight like one, but you're just a normal person, with the possibility of a life after all of this. He trusts humanity, because he has known how wonderful it can be."

Legault stood up abruptly and stretched. He looked up at the sky and watched the movement of the clouds as he listened to Matthew's fidgeting near him.

"I trust you as well," Legault whispered, barely audible but from the sharp intake of breath, he knew that Matthew had heard.

Within a moment, he changed from the serious, insightful man to the sly fool. And looked down at Matthew. Legault gave him an exaggerated wink and blew an imaginary kiss before darting away, his stealth skills becoming apparent as he seemed to slip into the shadows.

"You're a bloody bastard too!" Matthew called out to the darkness and Legault's throaty chuckle sounded from the woods around the tent.

"Quite the eavesdropper, aren't you?" Legault said, creeping up behind Jaffar who was sitting with his back to a large oak. At first glance, the Angel of Death showed no reaction to his sudden appearance but Legault saw the brief tensing of his neck that gave away the fact that his presence was unexpected.

"…Hurricane."

"Did you just leave little Nino by herself so that you could come and pry into his life?" Legault said with an unpleasant snarl.

"Nino's petting that other girl's pegasus," Jaffar said.

Legault didn't say anything for a moment as he stared at Jaffar, gauging his gaze. Jaffar neither moved nor flinched and true to his reputation, showed not a single emotion.

"Assassin or no assassin, if you hurt him with this perverse obsession of yours, I'll tear you apart with my own two hands," Legault said finally.

"…"

"Nice try Angel of Death. But next time you want to fool me into believing that you have no interest in him," Legault paused and reached down to where Jaffar had gripped his killing blade tightly in one hand and pried his fingers loose slowly, "convince yourself or your body first."

Legault took the killing blade and brandished it in front of Jaffar's face before raising it and stabbing the blade into the soft dirt with a savage thrust. His hand quivered a moment before he steadied himself, the whole time his gaze never leaving Jaffar's.

"You may be an experienced old man with a sword, but you're just a boy in every other part of life compared to me."

As Legault walked away, Jaffar stared at his blade still implanted into the ground and noted with a certain amount of admiration that other than the created crevice in which the blade was lodged, nothing else was disturbed. Not even the slightest bit of upturned dirt at the base of the blade.

_He's more than what he lets on,_ Jaffar thought and retracted his blade.

Jaffar's gaze wandered to where Matthew was sitting outside his tent and waited for a reaction that would indicate knowledge on the Matthew's behalf of the conversation that had just taken place between himself and Legault. There was no movement towards him as Matthew had grabbed a small branch and was prodding his campfire with little enthusiasm. Jaffar settled back down to watch him again.

He didn't know when his interest in the Ostian spy had increased to what it was now but since they had met, Matthew had been extremely passionate in front of him. Passionate about revenge, about his fellow spy and about Jaffar being, well, being as he was. It was true that he was not completely in touch with the whole spectrum of human emotions, but passion was one he was familiar with, Nino's vibrancy and her passion to live had given him a fair idea of the emotion. However, the passion Matthew showed was different to the young mage. She was, in his mind, sort of like sunshine, a warm and, he would even allow himself to admit, comforting and her passion showed through a fiery nature. His was cold.

Very cold.

What had started off as a subtle nagging of curiosity had soon increased to full blown interest and after the last threat he was delivered, it had only expanded exponentially. His childhood teaching had taught him not to question his actions, it would bring peace of mind and less worry upon one's conscience. Jaffar found himself falling back upon Nergal's teaching at the strangest of times, and those moments involving Matthew were many of them. And he found himself always wanting more, wanting to see Matthew's face shine with something other than the cold calculated, passionate fury that appeared to be reserved purely for himself.

His hand brushed across the hole in the ground that Legault had made and his earlier warnings came to his mind. He made an abrupt decision and stood, his fists clenching in determination.

It was far past time his 'perverse obsession', as Legault had put it, to stop, his eavesdropping to end and the cowardly prying to terminate.

With a deep in drawn breath, Jaffar approached Matthew.

Matthew saw Jaffar's cloak billowing signaling his arrival and his interested was piqued. He had about a dozen thoughts running through his head and he was somewhat shocked and almost relieved to find that none of them involved the fury he usually saved especially for the 'Angel of Death'. Jaffar seemed to be more uncertain as his steps slowed slightly the closer he came. Matthew was resolved to let him make the first move since every other time it was himself who started the one-sided conversations. And he didn't want to embarrass himself by blurting out the fact that he was admiring Jaffar's boots and privately wondering where he could get a set as sturdy and as silent. And they looked so comfortable.

"…Can I sit?" Jaffar said after an extended silence.

Matthew nodded his assent and Jaffar sat next to him, leaving room for around three people between them. Matthew rolled his eyes.

"Look, obviously you want something, otherwise you wouldn't be here. And it's a cool night, I won't bite your head off," he said motioning for Jaffar to move closer, all the time wondering where his former bitterness for the assassin had evaporated to.

"…" Jaffar shuffled a little closer, "I wanted to…apologise."

Matthew's eyes widen a fraction as he heard the words but then he mulled over them and considered the hesitant uncertainty with which he said it. He laughed, a bitter sound breaking the silence.

"Next time you want to apologise, make sure you mean it," Matthew said with a snicker, "What do you want?"

Matthew abruptly brought Jaffar face to face with himself in one fluid movement. He opened his mouth to curse him but the confusion written plainly on the assassin's face stopped him.

"I…I wanted to talk," Jaffar murmured, "About anything…anything other than revenge."

"You want what? What the hell, I guess we should start building up a little trust between each other, eh?" Matthew was shocked. Jaffar looked vulnerable at that moment, like a young child and that thought suddenly spurred Matthew into wondering about the assassin.

"How old are you?" Matthew asked abruptly.

"I'm not sure," Jaffar replied, his posture relaxing a little, "I was a baby when Nergal found me and trained me, in the early days of his takeover of the Black Fang. That was almost sixteen years ago."

"Really?" Matthew asked, a little surprised.

"I think I would be about seventeen years old?" Jaffar said it almost as a question.

Matthew didn't bother hiding his surprise anymore as a flurry of comments burst forth.

"What? Only seventeen? God, I'm so old compared to that. I'm like twenty-two this year!"

Jaffar didn't reply for a moment and Matthew thought their brief conversation was over until he heard Jaffar's soft reply.

"Legault's almost thirty."

"What?!" Matthew had never expected the other thief to be well, that _old_.

Jaffar shrugged and they settled back into a comfortable silence with Matthew's occasional muted exclamation of surprise. Matthew felt his body complaining of aches and he admitted to himself that it had been a long day. Ignoring the fact that Jaffar was sitting next to him, he stared at some faraway spot as lethargy began to overtake his body.

"Do you really mean it? You'll let me ride your pegasus? I've never ridden a horse with wings before, do you think I'll be alright? I mean, it should be fun right, with the ability to fly and feeling so free and all! I'm so excited!" Nino was almost babbling incoherently, her cape bobbing up and down with her delighted bouncing.

"Um…let's see now, yes I do mean it, you can ride Huey when this is all over…you should be alright…yes it's fun…and…oomph!" Florina's detailed answering of Nino's questions was interrupted as she was almost bowled over by the mage's flying tackle.

"Thank you!" Nino said, hugging Florina even harder, "I have to go tell Jaffar!"

She let go of Florina and bounded off towards the main camp in search of Jaffar to share her good news. In the distance, she could hear Florina's laboured breathing and what sounded like a soft "It's alright…"

Nino searched the camp with a surprising amount of zest and speed but she couldn't find Jaffar. And no one else seemed to notice the former Black Fang assassin or know where he had gone. Nino paused her rushed search and just thought about which places she hadn't covered and came out with a blank. And then one possibility arose.

Matthew.

Nino tried to put two and two together, which meant that according to her logic, Jaffar should be with Matthew or he was gone. But it just didn't make any sense to her, Jaffar had given her a quiet warning one evening about being careful around Matthew since the Ostian seemed to have reservations on former Black Fang members. Nino had retorted saying that he didn't seem to have a problem talking to 'Uncle Legault' and the two actually spoke quite regularly. Jaffar was silent for a moment before he turned a heated stare onto her, shocking her with its intensity and no more was said on the subject. And since then Nino had kept a safe distance from Matthew, more for Jaffar's sake than her own.

However, she now discarded all previous warnings and made her way to Matthew's tent attempting to be as quiet as possible. When she got there, her suspicions were confirmed and she assumed that Jaffar was indeed seated next to Matthew in front of his campfire, although from her perspective she couldn't see all that much. However, Nino did realise that they weren't arguing, they weren't even talking. Or fighting. Or for that matter, not even moving.

_Curiouser and curiouser…_she thought, remembering the line that Canas had said to her in passing, she found that she quite liked the line. And that it fit the situation very well.

She adjusted her position, crawling through the long grass and incorporating a few of the stealth techniques Jaffar and Legault had taught her and settled in closer and at a better angle for observation. It was then a few things she should have noticed earlier made themselves clear to her eyes.

Firstly, Jaffar had removed his heavy cape, it wasn't something he usually did because Nino knew from experience that the cape was very warm and Jaffar had a particular quirk that he couldn't stand being cold.

Secondly, the cape seemed to be draped around a huddled figure, whose light, sandy brown hair identified it to be someone unexpected called Matthew.

And possibly the most shocking of all was that Matthew was asleep, using Jaffar's arm as a pillow.

Nino's surprised gasp was cut off as a rough hand was clamped over her mouth. She prepared to strike out at her assailant before she was spun around and face to face with a rather amused Legault. From the indent in the grass and his lazy expression, it seemed as if he had been watching for quite some time. Legault shook his head at her silencing whatever questions or protests she may have voiced and she was lead away from Matthew's tent back to her own.

When they had reached the tent she shared with Jaffar, actually she slept in the tent and Jaffar always slept outside it to protect her, she was about to finally voice her frustrated questions but Legault beat her yet again.

"Don't ask, ok little Nino? Let's just say they resolved some tension between them tonight," Legault said with a brief wink.

Nino considered what she had seen and her mind quickly made connections using the little information Legault had given her. Obviously Jaffar and Matthew were on friendly terms now, and that was always something to be applauded. After all, she was interested in talking to Matthew since she had received interesting accounts of his personality from everyone else. Still, that could wait, in the mean time she turned back to Legault.

"Go to sleep Nino, I'll watch over you tonight," Legault said, giving her head a brief pat.

Nino nodded and was about to move inside but she had one more question to ask.

"Uncle Legault, you are a voyeur aren't you? I mean you were watching them all evening, you must have seen what they were doing right?" Nino asked, innocence written all over her face.

Legault actually spluttered at the question and Nino noted a faint pink blossoming on his cheek although she dismissed it as light cast off a campfire. Her Uncle Legault _never_ blushed. She waited patiently for his answer and after a cough and clearing of his throat, he spoke.

"I was making sure that they…er…didn't hurt each other," Legault said, albeit a little unconvincing before regaining his composure, "Where did you learn that word Nino?"

"Voyeur?" Nino asked and saw Legault's short nod, "I asked Sir Sain what it meant when he called Sir Kent a closet voyeur and he told me it was someone who liked watching others."

Legault sighed almost in relief and muttered something like, "Will pilfer Sain's sword and cut him up for tainting little girls."

"Um…Uncle Legault?" Nino said, a little hesitant.

"Yes?"

"Do you know why Sir Kent went as red as his hair and armour when he was called that?"

"Er…maybe he was…upset at…er…being caught," Legault offered lamely.

"Oh," Nino said, a little disappointed, Legault's answer didn't really explain why afterwards Sain had sent her off abruptly and on her way back, soft moans had sounded. She shrugged, she'd have to go ask Sir Kent next time.

**A/N:** This fic was written for Jia, who's been lovely et. all. She requested a MatthewxJaffar pairing and I don't think I've quite done it justice, shrug this was my interpretation of their relationship (well, what I could scourge up of an interpretation, since my first reaction to the requested pairing was "WHAT??? Jaffar and WHO?). If anyone would care to debate the issue, I'm open to opinions.

Regarding the ages, in Legault's support conversation with Jaffar, he mentions that Jaffar was a baby amongst a sea of dead bodies (or something along those lines) I'm using the assumption that Legault was with Black Fang at the time, possibly about 11 years old or so. Jaffar well, IMHO, is young. He's been forced into a job that didn't allow for youth, and besides, he couldn't be THAT old considering the whole issue of love between him and Nino. Matthew's age was just a guess. If anyone has any other information, please do let me know.

Thank you for reading, and comments very welcome.


End file.
